All My Friends are Dead

Hey Everyone!

So first I have to explain the Title of the email and the pictures below. Today a lot of missionaries ended their mission. So we when to the mission office to say goodbye and take pictures. Here in the mission we say that when someone ends their mission they "die" because its kind of like passing through the veil in a way. One has a Interveiw with the president about how the mission went and then they get on an airplane to go to another far away land to a home they had before. (mini plan of salvation right?) So reciently a lot of my friends are dying... and its been kind of sad. 

Lets say that we all live to be about 80 years old right?? if that is true than I am about 60 years old in the terms of the mission.... and all my freinds are dead. haha. The good thing is (both on the mission and in what one might call "real life") I know i will see all of them again, and there are many more adventures waiting for us beyond the veil.

This week has also been a little sad because my mini is going home. He has finished his time here in the mission and now can go back to his family. I hate changes because it always means you have to say goodbye to someone.... Carlos has become a really good friend and we have had a lot of good times. I hope we stay in touch. As one would say at BYU he is a "stud". 

At the same time, its kind of happy because i will be getting a comp missionary. I just got told today, though, that i will be training. Its my second or third time "training" but really this is my first "son" in the mission. I have no idea if he is gringo or latino. So i might have to be teaching some spanish soon. Changes are tommorrow so we will find out then.

Graciela didnt get baptized. we had to postpone the date. I hope it wasnt the wrong thing to do, but i hate just throwing together a baptism last second. I feel like to have a good solid baptism we really need a lot of member help. Im still getting to know the group a little bit. Its hard because i love visiting the members and getting to know them, but at the same time I feel a need to always be in the feild. There is a sense of urgency that i didnt feel before in the mission and i think it is from seeing so many missionaires go home and knowing that i am almost there as well. (mid-life-crisis??)

we WILL have a baptism this weekend though. we are teaching two little kids. Alex and Jahir. They are the BOM.COMhaha. they have been attending chuch with their grandma for half a year now and they just got permission from their mom to get baptized. they are super excited. their grandma has been telling me that they had problems fighting each other but  they have stopped fighting since we began teaching them. Even little kids go through a process of repentance and a change of heart i guess. Its so easy to love them. They remind me of little brothers i guess.

We are also still teaching a lady named Aurora. (I dont know if i mentioned her before) she is great. she wants to get baptized but she needs to get married first. Even though she has been sick for this last little bit she went to church for the first time ON HER OWN haha. she has been to a baptism and general conference and she loves everything, but we are really going to need member help to pull the whole family together to help them get married and baptized. my greatest desire for them is to see them as an eternal family enter the temple

I love the Pradera, and NEVER in my mission not even in Morrope have i asked president to let make stay longer or take me out earlier, but wow, its really tempting to do that here. I really would love to end my mission here working with everthing that is left in me. 

I love the mission and It has been the greatest blessing in my life. I am praying for the future missionaries because their are so many little things that could distract them from receiving the real blessings of this life.

I love you Bunker Family. I miss you all. I love showing pictures of the family to explain to people what an eternal family is. I am forever grateful to have those blessings in my life.

well thats all i have time for.

Love you all,

Always turn Outward, and Keep smiling!

Elder Bunker

Last Week with Mini

Hey everyone,

So this week has been super good. I have loved being able to work with carlos (i hope he can say the same thing about me haha). we have had a lot of success and i am tempted to tell the mission president to send more missionaries to the area because there is so much work to do!!! im really excited for the area. I LOVE the members here and i love the people and really just everything about the work. ( I really would like to stay here for the remaining 8 months of the mission )

So this week we have been working a lot with Graciela. She has a baptismal date for this saturday!!! Wow, talk about fast. I really want to plan it well so that she can remember it. She really reminds me of mom sometimes and maybe thats why im so excited for her baptism and helping her. I really hope she takes the step and understands everything. Sometimes its a little hard to communicate because she is a little deft (hard of hearing). I hope that with the remaining lessons she can really understand well and apply them. I have been thinking about postponing the date so that everything isnt as rushed, but we will see how it goes. 

I am super happy to hear Thomas is doing well in the MTC and that there are a few of the HT kids little siblings there too. I really hope the whole church can catch fire with the spirit of the work. there is a lot to do and sometimes it feels like there is little time to do it.

Grandma and Grandpa i dont know if you will get this email, so mom if you can send it to them that would be great. I met a girl who served with Grandma and Grandpa in the Cusco mission in Urubamba. her name is sister Villegas. she is on the ward council and works in the primary. She is really cool and from what i can see she is a great support in the church.

Our little family group will be a branch soon. :D im super excited and i feel really priveledged. i hope they build a chapel here soon because we dont fit in the house chapel anymore. haha. 

My areal is a lot like morrope and it makes me really excited to serve them. and easier to love them too!!

Well love you all!!

Always turn outward and keep smiling,

Elder Bunker

ps the pictures are me with Carlos (mini-misionary) and the other is my old comp and i with an investigator and member in the airport to say goodbye.

Week 3 with MIni - PreChristmas General Conference

hey everyone

sorry this might be short. 

5 min with a bad keyboard haha.

conference was great. mini is doing better, he is talking a lot more and the people really enjoy his testimony. i hope i can motivate him to turn in his papers and go on a mission. 

im super happy with this weeks work. we have been able to do a lot, but at the same time i feel like we have a lot more to do.

Hermana Graciela is going to get baptized!! her date is the 19th. i hope carlos can baptize her. i think seeing that baptism really helped her feel the spirit. she doesnt hear very well, but what she SAW really touched her. i hope all goes well. haha she is awesome because she takes her 2 grown daughters to the church and encourages them to listen to us.

we are having a blast here. i want to be here till the end of my mission seriously. I am really tempted to ask the president to send more missionaries here to help in the work. the feild is white!!!! I feel a great love for the people here and it is growing everyday.

LOVE you all!!!

keep smiling, always turn outward

Elder Bunker

pic is of the baptisn my first interveiw as DL! :D

Changes.....

Hey Everyone

sorry this will be short. i dont have much time.

first. i dont have a companion right now.... my companion went to his mission in Dominica Republicana and so now im with a member missionary for the next month haha. suprise!!! im not training anymore haha... more or less.

Im super bummed he left. he was a good comp. My new comp is named Carlos. he is a really cool youth who wants to serve a mission but has a lot of opposition from his family. i just met him today so i still need to get to know him more, but we have had a good time so far. 

whats crazy about all of this is i still dont know the area. so we are going to be getting lost these next few weeks, but we should figure it out soon haha.

the district is good. we have a few problems but with the help of the lord we are working them out...

Hope all is well at home. Im excited for conference :D

Im super glad there is another missionary from the family in the feild

Love you all!!

always turnoutward and keep smiling

elder bunker

Changes...

Hey everyone,

So... I have a transfer!!! This will have to be short because im in the mission office right now. I have left Cajamarca and i have no idea where i am going... 

Im wont sugarcoat it.... im super bummed.... I had about one of the coolest companiones and even though the area was super rough I loved it. Elder Driggs has been my companion for 2 transfers now and we have talked about almost everything haha. I hope we get the chance to do somethigns after the mission. He has become one of my best freinds here in the mission.

I am also kind of sad. I left a few converts and i didnt get to say goodbye to all of them... who knows when the opertunity will come to return.... Cajamarca is so far away i will never have the chance to see them unless i come back after the mission... 

I also left 3 pensions.... most people only have 1 in a zone.... i had three and each wonderful sister has been like a mother to me.... especially the sister Elizabeth Soria.... oh man. That was a rough one to say goodbye to. When i first got to cajamarca i was opening an area with elder Molina and we had all sorts of difficulties, but sister E. was always there to comfort us, re-excite us to keep workign and helped us to really feel at home. I cannot imagine my life without meeting her and her wonderful family. I have yet another wonderful example to me of what kind of family i would like to have (the first example would be my own family)

Some favorite memories of mine from cajamarca:

always being chased by dogs.... doesnt matter if its the smallest dog in the world it has to bark at us....

playing guitar on Pdays with driggs.

Walking up the mountain EVERYDAY.... and the walking up the OTHER MOUNTAIN after...

English Clases.

Missionary Nights.

Listenign to BYU talks on the Ipod at night after planning

PDAYS to waterfalls, rockformations and soccer stadiums.

Havign the most ridiculous district ever 

getting sick with driggs (haha)

avoiding snakes

teaching alien nerds haha

meeting Brother Martin (coolest RM ever!)

etc.

Its been a good six months in cajamarca and it has gone too fast..... I cant beleive the mission is ending so sooon. But there are still many more experiences up ahead. As Martin put it "life is an adventure!! and it will always be, the trick is to find it!!"

sorry so short, I love you all!!

Always turn outward and keep smiling,

and go find the adventure in life!!!

Elder Bunker

the pictures are of saying goodbye today